Until 8 p.m. includes Twin Cities area

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

Closed-door talks aimed at striking a session-ending bargain recessed Monday with a common assessment that the divide over transportation needs to be solved before lawmakers can make real progress.

Gov. Mark Dayton proclaimed the initial discussions were "constructive" as he emerged from his 90-minute conversation with House Speaker Kurt Daudt, Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk and a few other senior legislators. The other participants shared his description of the meeting, but that code word Dayton used often gets tossed around freely when agreements are out of reach.

"These first meetings are always a bit about getting on the same page and making sure we are looking at the right numbers," said Daudt, R-Zimmerman. "Obviously there hasn't been much movement at this point."

With less than two weeks until the Legislature heads home, the transportation plan is shaping up as a linchpin. If lawmakers decide to do one, it will affect how much of the projected $900 million surplus they'll have left to devote to other items and if space is cleared up or consumed in a broader public works borrowing package. Democrats, including Dayton, have proposed raising the gasoline tax to provide a new stream of road money, but Republicans call that a non-starter.

"It's still a piece from last session that we haven't resolved," said  Bakk, DFL-Cook. "So I think we've kind of agreed 'Let's try to pick up on what we didn't finish last year.' So that's the reason it's first."

Daudt added that it's priority item for all sides.

"We feel like transportation is something everybody wants, and there shouldn't really be an excuse to leave here without accomplishing at least that. So my hope is we can at least do that if nothing else, but I'm optimistic. And I also think that once transportation comes together all the other pieces will fall into place, so I think it's logical to start there," he said "But who knows, maybe I'm wrong."

A revised budget, construction borrowing and tax cuts also remain in flux.

The Senate DFL's $1.8 billion bonding plan _ with about $1.5 billion in general state borrowing _ was defeated by a single vote last week, and House Republicans haven't produced their own.

Daudt said his caucus still wants to keep new borrowing to $600 million, but said he didn't expect a bill of that size would gather the Democratic votes needed for the supermajority required for passage.

"We care more about what's in the bill than the size of the bill," Daudt said, adding it would have been "a lot of theater to put a bill out to fail."

After a rocky end to last year's legislative session, Dayton said it's imperative that everyone involved in private negotiations are working from the same numbers and fully aware of the competing positions. He said earlier this year he wouldn't waste his time with talks that seemed fruitless from the start, a position he clarified Monday.

"I said I was not going to repeat the process of spending five days negotiating the details. I don't know how we're going to resolve this without doing that," Dayton said. "But I don't want to do that. I don't think it's productive. It certainly was not productive last year."

Politics and Government News

Capitol View®

Brian Bakst

Author

Minnesota leaders are in the same room, but not in the same ballpark, as negotiations over session's main issues commence.

Ritual at the Residence: Session talks start slowly

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox